tv connections

Humax FOXSAT-HD Freesat HD

The Humax Foxsat-HD has the benefits of a digital box, plus up to 70 hours a week of HD programmes, subscription-free. If you have an HD Ready TV or are thinking of buying one, this is a great option.

Over 140 great digital TV and radio channels and services
Free HD programmes from the BBC and ITV
One payment, no subscription, no bills
8-day On Screen Programme Guide
Interactive TV
Dolby digital audio output
Parental control
Subtitles and Audio Description
HDMI – digital interface for perfect transmission of picture and sound
Auto detection of new channels or software – no need to ever re-tune
Receives HDTV signals (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and MPEG-2)
Standby power: less than 1W
Resolution format: 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i
DVB-S2 and DVB-S compatible

Connections

1 x HDMI Socket
2 x Scart Sockets
LNB In and Out
Ethernet
SPDIF – Digital Audio Out

HDMI Switching Scaler

This compact high performance HDMI upscaler can connect up to five devices to one HDTV display or projector. It is perfect for connecting your multiple devices such as DVD players, set top boxes etc to your HDTV. It will upscale digital and analogue video signals from your devices to HDMI.1.2 to be shown on your HDMI display. This means video signals can be upscaled to be displayed at resolutions of up to 1080p and WUXGA (1920 x 1200). The HDCP compliant device supports Composite Video, S-Video, VGA, Component Video (HD), and HDMI inputs. You can easily switch between each input device using a remote control. Not only does it support video, the scaler also supports both analogue and digital audio signals as well. It can scale any PC (VGA to WUXGA) or HD (480i to 1080p) input resolution to any other PC / HD resolution. Its on-screen display makes it even easier to use. The LINDY HDMI 1080p Switching Scaler is a great small, compact, inexpensive device.

Technisat HDFS Freesat HD Digital Box

The Technisat HDFS HD Freesat Box has the benefits of a digital box, plus up to 70 hours a week of HD programmes, subscription-free. If you have an HD Ready TV or are thinking of buying one, this is a great option. Continue reading “Technisat HDFS Freesat HD Digital Box”

Virgin V+ Connections

The Virgin Media V+ box has a variety of connectors to get the picture and sound to your TV, we’ll start off with the picture connections.

The V+ box has 3 video output connections:-

Scart – The scart connection supports RGB, RGB with composite sync (RGBS) and composite video (CVBS). The V+ box scart connection will only provide a standard definition picture, s-video is not supported so scart to s-video cables will give a black and white picture. If using a CRT or non HD Ready TV then a scart lead can be used to connect video and audio.
Component Video – The V+ box component video connection will provide a high defintion tv (HDTV) signal, whilst not quite as good as HDMI, HD via a component video cable will give an excellent picture. A component video cable has 3 phono plugs each end coloured Red, Green and Blue, sometimes referred to as an RGB cable, although you will find the connectors marked YUV or YPbPr.
HDMI – The best connection to use, connect the V+ box with an HDMI cable, this transfers the audio and video digitally with a single cable.

The V+ box has 2 options for connecting sound, you will only need to use these audio outputs if using a component cable which doesn’t support sound or are connecting to a surround sound system:-

Stereo phono output – Phono connectors provide the left and right audio channels, this output only supports 2 channel stereo sound, use a stereo phono cable to make the connection, if you want surround sound the optical output should be used.
Optical output (toslink) – The V+ optical connection outputs 5.1 surround sound via single toslink optical cable, a single toslink cable should be connected between the box and the av receiver / surround sound amplifier.

Connecting Sky HD Box to Surround Sound System

Connecting a Sky HD box to a surround system will enhance your viewing experience especially when watching movies, to get the multichannel sound a digital connection must be made from the Sky HD box to the surround amplifier. If the surround sound system has an HDMI input it would seem the most obvious choice would be to connect the box to the amplifer with an HDMI cable and an HDMI cable from the amplifer to the TV. The problem is that Sky HD only supports 2 channel digital sound via the HDMI output hence an optical cable (toslink cable) should be connected from the Sky HD optical output to an optical input on the amplifier, this will provide 5.1 surround sound.

Welcome to TV Connections, here we look at the various ways of connecting a televisions, displays, media devices and home cinema systems etc. For the past 30 years the scart lead has been the primary connection cable for connecting a device to a TV but in the last 3 years everything has changed as we have moved into the digital age.

The scart lead is still in widespread use today but is only capable of carrying an analogue TV signal with a standard definition resolution, most commonly in the UK referred to as 576i (576 lines of interlaced picture).

A new connection called an HDMI cable was created to carry a high definition TV (HDTV) signal into the new LCD and Plasma TV ranges. HDMI Cables have much smaller plugs than scart and if you’re not familiar with them you could mistake it for a USB connector. The HDMI Cable carries the signal digitally as a stream of 1s and 0s, as such it is much less prone to interference and all but a faulty cable will transfer the sound and picture in perfect quality. Continue reading “TV Connections”

Connecting Sky HD Box to TV

The first generation of Sky HD boxes had both component video and HDMI High Definition outputs, more recent boxes have dropped the component output leaving HDMI as the only HD cable output.

If you have a spare HDMI input on the TV and you are using the TVs internal speakers for sound then the it is very easy to connect the Sky HD box to the TV, a single HDMI cable is all that is required to give you both the video and audio.